Perth's high office vacancy rate is a pervasive symptom of the state's economic slump but a new survey suggests just a small fraction of the city's buildings hold close to half of the empty space.

The Office Not Occupied Index devised by Perth research firm Y Research looks at the number of office properties in Perth's metropolitan area that have had more than 1,000 square metres of vacant space for more than 12 months.

A new index has found less than five per cent of Perth's buildings account for nearly fifty per cent of its vacancies. Photo: Philip Gostelow

The index found less than five per cent of Perth's office buildings - 129 properties - account for close to fifty per cent of the city's office vacancies.

Y Research's Principal Damian Stone said the index identified the properties that needed to be improved to cut the vacancy rate and also track the 'flight to quality' trend that had seen tenants move to better digs across the city.

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"Despite representing just 4.9 per cent of Perth office buildings, these properties contained approximately 49 per cent of the 800,000 square metres currently vacant across metropolitan Perth," Mr Stone said.

"While there has been recent improvement in the Perth CBD office market, due to years of downsizing by resources companies and record office development, there is the equivalent of 20 empty Woodside Plaza buildings across metropolitan Perth.

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"While over 40 per cent of metropolitan Perth's office buildings have a vacancy, significant occupation of these large, longer term vacancies will be key to lower vacancy rates in Perth's office markets by the end of the decade."

There are efforts underway to cut the vacancy rate in the CBD, including a push by the City of Perth to stimulate ideas for revitalising C-Grade office buildings as vertical schools, medical hubs and event multi-level shopping complexes.

Mr Stone said the index showed clearly that buildings that don't keep up with the times can get left behind.

"Nearly half of problem properties in suburban office markets have been developed in the last decade," Mr Stone said.

"Vacancies in these properties have been impacted by the inability to lease the balance of un-committed space upon completion, losing tenants to the Perth CBD and development funding limiting owners' ability to meet lower market rents."